Goodnight, Fox
by MelanyeBaggins
Summary: Post-Movie. AU- Scully's cancer returns. Much angst ensues and Mulder tries to pick up the broken pieces.


*~Goodnight, Fox~*

Disclaimer: I don't own Mulder and Scully, I've just stolen them for a few hours, but I'll give them back when I'm finished- Just like new. Better than new! *bg*  
Spoilers: Hmmm…possibly Memento Mori, Gethsemene/Redux. If you don't know about Sculy's cancer, your screwed. Post-Movie.

  
Rating: PG for some kissing.   
Classification: I don't know what all those acronyms are, but my story is DEFFINATLY Angst, and there's some MSR. (It gets pretty mushy)  
And now, the story.

  
***

Dana Scully unlocked the door to her apartment and stumbled inside. She looked around her dark home and closed the door. She made her way through her living room in the dark, letting her coat, shoes, sweatshirt and jeans fall to the floor on the way to her room. Once there, she climbed under the covers and went to sleep. Somewhere far away, she heard the phone ring. 

***

"This is Dana Scully, I can't take your call right now, bu-"

  
"Damn!" Fox Mulder exclaimed into his cell phone when he got his partner's answering machine.

  
"...after the beep."

  
"Scully? " He paused. "Scully? Come on , Scully, pick up. If you're screening pick up. I know you're home, I saw your car. Alright, I'm coming up there." He hung up, parked the car right in front of her building which he'd been circling for the past three minutes and headed to her apartment. 

When he got there, the first thing he noticed was that her keys still hung in the unlocked door. Sighing slightly, he took them and pushed open the door. Then he noticed the trail of clothes leading to her bedroom. He froze. For a split second he thought she had brought someone home with her, but shook his head. 

Stepping over her clothes, he walked to her bedroom. There was an unidentifiable lump of sheets in her bed. He smiled. He approached her bed cautiously and put a hand on her shoulder. Her only reaction was a slight jerk of her head. 

"Scully?" He shook her. It then occurred to him that he'd forgotten why he was there. He considered leaving, but before he could get up he heard a moan from under the comforter.

  
"Scully?" He touched her shoulder again and this time she bolted up in bed, knocking him onto the floor. After he'd composed himself, Mulder turned on the desk lamp and heard a rather loud moan in protest. When he looked back at her she'd hidden her face under the covers.

  
"Scully?" he asked again. Slowly, the covers fell back just enough to reveal a pair of dark blue, bloodshot eyes. They stared at him for a while before she answered him. 

"Mulder?" She croaked, "what are you doing here?" 

"Scully, are you all right?" he asked, evading the question, "you look horrible." he helped her sit up and caught a faint smell of Vodka. "Have you been drinking?" 

"No." She defended, and then sighed, her eyes meeting his. "Yes," she relented. "I thought that if I drank enough..." she gestured around the room weakly, "..all this would go away." 

"What, your room?" 

"No, my life!" she said, raising her voice and trying unsteadily to get to her feet, but instead, falling back on the bed. 

"Did it work? 

"No" 

"Do you want me to get you anything?" he asked, checking her temperature with his hand. 

"Yeah, aspirin and water," she croaked. He nodded and went off to the bathroom. 

Scully stood up slowly, combating her aching muscles and pounding headache. She got her housecoat from the back of a chair and wrapped it tightly around her body.  
Mulder came back with the bottle of aspirin and a tall glass of water. Scully gratefully accepted them and popped four pills in her mouth, swallowing them all at once. 

"Scully, I thought you said you don't drink." he started. She sighed. 

"I don't." 

"Then why-" She stood up and walked into the dining room and started leafing through the papers on the table. "Scully, what's wrong?" She picked up an envelope, a rather large envelope that he recognized as an X-ray. She handed it to him. 

"Cancer's back." 

The house fell silent. They could hear the clock ticking in her kitchen. 

"Scully....bu-...but how?" 

"I was feeling sick yesterday- when I went to see the doctor, my nose began to bleed." She took a deep breath. "It's grown ten percent since my last X-ray. He's given me about a month, maybe two." 

Mulder didn't waste another seccond before he enveloped her in a big Mulder-hug. As they always did, the moment ended with hardly even an acknowledgement of the feelings they have for each other. Scully sat on the couch in her living room and prepared to tell him the _bad_ news. 

"Mulder..." 

"Scully, I know what you're going to say, but-" 

"Mulder, I'm leaving the X-files," she blurted out. The room went silent again. Tic, tic, tic... 

"You're...but..." he couldn't say it. he turned away from her. 

"Mulder, I don't have much time left, and I don't want to spend that time chasing conspiracies. I don't have the energy anymore. I e-mailed my resignation to Skinner last night, " she finished. 

Mulder looked positively angry, "Scully, how can you quit now? After all we've done, fighting to get the X-Files back, how can you just throw it away?" 

She looked at him, felt the tears well up in her eyes. _No, don't cry! Not yet!_ But she did. She felt the tears bounce down her cheeks and heard her voice quiver, "Get out." She said quietly. In a split second, Mulder's face turned from anger to regret. 

"Scully,...." 

"GET OUT!" She cried, going back into her room and slamming the door. He followed her in and narrowly missed a pillow that was thrown in his direction. 

"I thought that you cared about me!" She screamed at him tearfully, "I thought maybe you would understand. But obviously you don't." She walked up to the door..."and you call yourself a psychologist." ...and slammed it in his face. 

He was silenced then. He wanted so much to tell her how wrong she was, but thought that it would just make things worse. He wanted to comfort her but he couldn't, and it killed him inside to know that he was the one that made her cry. He headed for the door as she continued to sob and choke on her own tears. 

He opened the front door, looking into the hall, hearing her crying continue. He looked back at her bedroom and then at the door. Without thinking, he let the door close with a loud thud and turned the deadbolt to lock it. 

He was going nowhere. 

He removed his jacket and took a blanket out of the linen closet. Then he stripped down to his boxers and made himself comfortable on the couch.   
  


***

Scully's eyes slowly opened. The sun was blazing through her window. The first thing she noticed was that her arms were above her head. She hated when she woke up like that. She turned her head to check the time. 

9:25 

She let out a shaky sigh as she remembered the night before. Feeling a twinge of hunger, she decided to go get something to eat. 

She got up and unconsciously padded over to the kitchen, walking through the living room, past the front door and over to the cupboard. She poured herself a tall glass of milk and downed it all at once. Putting the glass down, she walked back into the living room to pick up her clothes. 

That was when she saw him. 

She sighed heavily 

She walked over to the couch and knelt down beside his head. _'He's so beautiful when he's sleeping'_ she thought, brushing a strand of hair away from his eyes. _'I can't imagine him ever wanting to hurt me.'_

"I'm sorry, " she whispered. "I'm sorry I got mad at you. I know you were just trying to help me. I was tired, I guess I just needed to sleep it off. Please don't be mad at me." She finished, resting her head on the pillow beside his. Mulder, without moving or opening his eyes responded. 

"I love you, Scully," he whispered. "I could never get mad at you. I almost lost you once to your illness- I won't let it claim you this time either." He sat up to look in her eyes. "I won't." 

"Mulder.." She had tears in her eyes now. One of them fell and soaked into her flannel pygamas. Mulder put his finger over her lips. Another tear. He wiped it away with his thumb. He caressed her face, savoring the moment they both knew had come. Finally, after six years of waiting, he brought his lips to meet hers. 

"I love you, Mulder..." she whispered against his lips. She kissed him again, more passionately, the memory of the hallway outside his apartment driving their mutual need for each other.

  
He kissed her forehead, like she had done to him a year before. She rested her head on his chest and listened to his heart as he gently stroked her hair. 

"Do you know why I said what I did?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper. "It wasn't because I was insensitive it was because I was selfish. I couldn't bear to see you go- to say goodbye. I love you too much to let you go. I _need_ you." 

"I need you too," she said as if just realizing it. "I don't know when it happened, but somewhere along the way I realized that I'd be lost without you." The admittance to her feelings brought fresh tears to her eyes. _" I don't ever want to be alone!"_

"Shh...shh.." he soothed, kissing her forehead again, "I'll never let you go. You'll never have to be alone." He hugged her tightly as she cried. 

END 


End file.
